Quark Expeditions, a leader in cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica (and celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2011), has just chartered its first luxury vessel, Sea Spirit, for at least three Antarctic voyages. The ship has a ratio of 94 crew to 120 guests, and offers up amenities such as …

Architect Guy Dreier has built more than 50 residences in and around Palm Springs, Calif., including Robb Report’s 2009 Ultimate Home. The Dreier-designed estate shown on these pages, which was completed in 2008, bears a striking resemblance to that winning property, but is far from cookie-cutter: The 9,300-square-foot retreat on …

When Dene Oliver started coming to Los Cabos in the late 1970s, the area at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula was a blank canvas of sand and sea. "I had a sailboat and would sail down the coast along the Sea of Cortez," recalls Oliver, a San Diego–based …

In 1949, Count Antonio Bolza fled Soviet-occupied Hungary, leaving his estate behind. Decades later, the nobleman finally found an appropriate site for a new family compound: in Italy, where his ancestors originated. "We discovered this farming estate with 50 farmhouses on 3,000 acres on the Umbria-Tuscany border," recalls Count Benedikt …

Dubai—a city famous for resorts that are very tall, very large, and occasionally shaped like ships at sea—has a peaceful new refuge. Opened in the fall, One&Only The Palm is a low-rise, low-bling sanctuary of pools, gardens, and beaches, located a mile from Dubai on one of the Palm Jumeirah …

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Nizam Mehboob Ali Khan presided over the southern Indian city of Hyderabad from his hilltop Falaknuma Palace. The beauty of the marble building faded along with the Nizam dynasty after India gained independence from Great Britain in 1947. But last November, after a …

Opened in november, the St. Regis Bahia Beach sets a new high-water mark for Puerto Rican resorts. The 483-acre property, which is about 40 minutes by car from Old San Juan, encompasses two miles of private sandy beachfront; a golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr.; a 10,000-square-foot, marble-swathed …

Le Royal Monceau in Paris has been a rendezvous for artists and writers since the hotel opened in 1928. Even its recent reinvention started as a kind of performance-art piece: In 2008, the property hosted an all-night "demolition party" where the few hundred guests were handed Champagne and sledgehammers and …

London’s Soho House Group has brought its city-club concept to South Beach. Soho Beach House, Miami, a private members’ club and hotel, opened in October just north of South Beach in a discreet Art Deco landmark that formerly housed the Sovereign Hotel. The property, which also includes a new 16-story …

The Shangri-La China World Summit Wing’s rooms and suites occupy the top 18 floors of Beijing’s new 81-story China World Tower, stretching some 1,000 feet above the city’s central business district. To ensure privacy within its lower-level public spaces, the high-tech hotel, which opened in August, offers such features as …